PTQ Q3 2023 Issue

ExxonMobil carbon capture facility

facility running on fossil fuels, then stored deep under- ground or transported to be used in a variety of applications. As the movement towards a decarbonised world acceler- ates, hydrogen demand is expected to increase significantly to generate power, help buildings operate efficiently, and power aircraft. That means CCUS will become even more critical, as CCUS is one of the two main ways to produce low-carbon hydrogen. According to Honeywell, projects worldwide that use carbon capture technology have the capacity to capture 40 million tons of CO² per year.³ “ExxonMobil’s investment in carbon capture technology shows our commitment to supporting customers in their decarbonisation efforts and to reducing emissions at our own operations,” said Dan Ammann, President of ExxonMobil Low Carbon Solutions. Ammann added, “The scale of this project is expected to enable up to 30% of Scope 1 and 2 emissions from our Baytown facility by switching from natu- ral gas as a fuel source to low-carbon hydrogen.” “The use of Honeywell’s technology enables ExxonMobil to reduce CO 2 emissions at a large scale,” said Barry Glickman, Vice President and General Manager, Honeywell Sustainable Technology Solutions. “Our ready-now carbon capture technology works to decarbonise production pro- cesses and is effective because it can allow for significant emissions reduction that can play a major role in the energy transition.” References 1 Based on the EPA’s greenhouse gas equivalency calculator com- pares nearly 7 million tons of CO₂ per year with gasoline-powered passenger vehicles on the road. 2 CO₂ equivalent emissions is a calculated value based on the com - bined carbon compounds emitted from the hydrogen production and carbon capture equipment plus the combined carbon compounds in the H₂ product. 3 Includes capacity of deployed Honeywell technology (membranes

and chemical & physical solvents) in installed projects enabling CO₂ capture from gas streams, of which 15 million tonnes of the captured CO₂ is being utilised for enhanced oil recovery annually.

ExxonMobil

Innovations in industrial zeolite mesoporisation deliver robust catalytic benefits in hydrocracking

As the key value generator in many established refineries, increasing the output towards desired fractions in a hydro- cracker is a major commercial and efficiency driving force. In zeolite-based hydrocracking catalysts, mesoporous fau- jasites have proven able to yield significantly more middle distillates at the expense of undesired gas formation. Nevertheless, the industrial adoption of mesoporous fau- jasites is hampered by costly mesoporisation technologies, implying copious amounts of expensive templates and, moreover, significant reductions in catalytic activity based on losses in intrinsic zeolite properties, such as microporos- ity and acidity. Post-synthetic mesoporisation technologies, which remove these bespoke hurdles, offer a superior yield of middle distillates and increased activity compared to both conventional and state-of-the-art mesoporous zeolites. Zeopore recently finalised a hydrocracking campaign exe - cuted on a refinery feed, using base metal catalysts in both sweet and sour modes, attaining middle distillate benefits of up to 4 wt%, which are combined with a gain in activity (see Figure 1 ). A key component of achieving this success is the quality of the mesoporous zeolite, says Zeopore’s CTO, Dr Danny Verboekend: “Making mesopores in zeolites on itself is actu- ally not that hard… Yet the challenge is to achieve a specific level of mesoporosity and tuning secondary parameters

101

PTQ Q3 2023